Wednesday, 23 December 2015

A FURTHER ALTERNATIVE PROPULSION FOR LONDON'S BUSES

·New biodiesel deals will reduce CO2 emissions from London buses by 21,000 tonnes each year

·CO2
emissions from each bus will fall by more than 10 per cent

Almost a third of London’s bus fleet will soon be running on a greener blend of diesel, resulting in a huge reduction in CO2 emissions of 21,000 tonnes each
year which comes on top of the 48,000 tonne CO2 reduction from 2013 levels as a result of the introduction of lower emitting buses such as hybrids.

Two
bus operators, Stagecoach and Metroline, have signed deals with Argent
Energy to supply them with B20 green diesel. The cleaner burning fuel is
made from blending
diesel with renewable biodiesel from waste products, including cooking
oil and tallow from the meat processing trade.

By
March next year, almost 3,000 of the capital’s 8,900 buses will be
powered by the B20 fuel blend. Six hundred and forty-two buses operating
out of four Stagecoach
depots have already been using B20 for two months on a trial basis.

Deputy
Mayor for Environment and Energy, Matthew Pencharz, said: “As a leading
global city London has an important role to play in reducing greenhouse
gases and minimising
our contribution to climate change.

“Just
a fortnight after the Mayor’s visit to the Paris conference on
preventing global warming, I am very pleased to announce that nearly a
third of London’s buses
will now be running on biodiesel, slashing the overall carbon emissions
of the fleet and making use of fuels that would otherwise be clogging
up our drains. These buses will be a proud addition to what is already
the greenest bus fleet in the world, including
hybrid, pure electric and pure hydrogen vehicles.

“This is ongoing progress for running our bus fleets on waste products and cutting CO2.
We will continue to work with our industry partners to use more of
London’s used cooking oil turned into biodiesel right here in the city,
creating green jobs and fuel self-sufficiency benefits.”

Mike
Weston, TfL’s Director of Buses, said: “Our bus fleet is now making a
major contribution to improving air quality and bringing down CO2
emissions. This improvement, which will reduce CO2
emissions by 21,000 tonnes each year, is being introduced now with no
extra spend needed and no long delay for the fitting of new kit. It’s
just one of a number of measures we are taking to
make London’s environment better for everyone.”

Dickon
Posnett, Development Director of Argent Energy, said: “The ever-growing
demand to reduce greenhouse gases from transport is well recognised.
TfL and the Greater
London Authority have actually done the research and have now shown
they have the understanding of the immediate benefits that high
bio-blend diesel can bring.

“They
and London bus companies are leading the way in using this economic and
simple option that can produce significant greenhouse gas reductions
from bus fleets,
here and now. The good example set here can only help to inform other
UK cities that are also looking to make greenhouse gas savings.”

Biodiesel
is a renewable, clean-burning fuel. TfL requires that biodiesel blended
into B20 for London buses is made from waste, rather than crop-based
feedstocks. It
is estimated that buses running on waste-based B20 produce 10 per cent
less ‘well to wheel’ carbon emissions than a bus using ordinary diesel.

London’s
bus network is one of the largest in the world, carrying almost 2.4
billion passengers a year. Currently, the 8,900-strong bus fleet uses
around 240 million
litres of fuel each year. Under the new deals, about 80 million litres
of the new greener blend of fuel per year will be consumed.

The
Capital’s bus fleet already has over 1,500 hybrid electric buses and 15
pure electric buses. Over 2,000 older buses have been retrofitted with
Selective catalytic Reduction,
reducing their NOx emissions by up to 88 per cent per bus. The number
of hybrid buses will increase to over 1,700 by 2016 – a figure that will
represent over 20 per cent of the fleet.

In
addition, eight zero emission hydrogen buses operate on route RV1,
between Covent Garden and Tower Gateway. TfL will also soon be trialling
inductive charging technology
that will enable special extended range diesel electric hybrid buses to
wirelessly charge their batteries while they wait at bus stands.

The technology will be trialled on up route 69 in east London, which runs between Canning Town and Walthamstow bus stations.

The
world’s first purpose-built double deck electric buses will also enter
passenger service shortly. By 2020, as part of the Ultra Low Emission
Zone, TfL is committed
to ensuring all 300 single decker buses operating in central London are
zero emission (e.g. electric or hydrogen), and all 3,100 double deck
buses are hybrid.

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